Be a Trans Advocate

Being Fearlessly Out and Trans is a Revolutionary Act

On one of the trans Facebook groups I monitor a post was put up about the gruesome murder of transman Evon ‘Yung LT’ Young. One person remarked in the comment thread under the post that’s why she never leaves her home, and of course my response to that comment triggered this post.

That’s what the haters want…They want you to cower in fear locked up behind your doors. Your most revolutionary act as a trans person is to be fearlessly out and about in the world.

We have to constantly battle as transpeople the unholy trinity of shame, guilt and fear. One of the reasons we get so much violence aimed at us is not only because we are trans, but the haters want to intimidate us into silence so they can go back to demonizing us with impunity and claiming we don’t exist.

Umm no. This is the second decade of the 21st century. We are now 60 years beyond the February 13 day Christine Jorgensen returned from Denmark to popping media flashbulbs and overwhelming media attention.

[pullquote align=”right”]And how do you stand up for your human rights? By committing the revolutionary act of being fearlessly out and about in the world living your ordinary, everyday lives.[/pullquote]Trans people need to be out, proud and claiming their rightful place in the beautiful mosaic of human life. We need to be and are demanding our human rights be respected and protected in the laws of the countries we reside in. We are demanding respect for our humanity from friend, foe and frenemy.

If the haters don’t like that, tough. I know I don’t care what they think because being trans is nothing to be ashamed of. If you honestly don’t feel that way, then why did you transition in the first place?

I say it loud that I’m Black, trans and proud every day on this blog, at any panel discussion I’m privileged to be a part of around this nation and when I get the opportunity to do my speeches. Hopefully I”ll get to do that on an international level one day.

And I’ll look damned good when I do so.

Your best defense as a hated upon marginalized group is to be visible, not cowering in the fetal position waiting to take blows from your oppressors. So go on that shopping trip to the mall. Join your local civic organization. Take that walk around the block and say hello to you neighbors as you get your exercise in. Join that local church. Attend those city council and school board meetings and introduce yourself to your elected representatives Go shake you butt at the club. Live your life.

The late civil rights icon Dorothy Height said, “When you’re a Black won, you seldom get to do just what you want to do, you always do what you have to do.”

What we have to do is stand up, be proud of who we are, tell our stories and stand up for our human rights. We can’t do that from a closet or locked behind a door in our room scared to walk around in the world.

And how do you stand up for your human rights? By committing the revolutionary act of being fearlessly out and about in the world living your ordinary, everyday lives.

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The TransAdvocate aims to improve the lives of transgender people through investigative news and nuanced commentary from a boots-on-the-ground trans advocate perspective. What sets the TransAdvocate apart is its commitment to publishing contextual pieces based on original investigative effort. In other words, we don’t simply repeat the news from other media sources, we report the news as discovered through actual investigative work and fact-checking... More